Colin
@theabingdontaxi
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Dispatches from the front lines of #church management and UK #taxi driving. Singing the Lord’s song in a strange land.
Abingdon and Oxford
Joined April 2010
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Colin the Cat 2019 to 2024
Lived on the streets for most of his life and with me in
#Oxford
for only 32 days.
Here he is at the start and at the end of the 32 days. Died suddenly this morning. I hope he knew he was surrounded by love in his final days.
Devastated. C x
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Fred the Labrador: a very good boy
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Colin the Cat was laid to rest this evening, during The Golden Hour. I read from Ecclesiastes 3 and Cymbeline
“Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”
And prayed The Lord’s Prayer at the end. Cx
Colin the Cat 2019 to 2024
Lived on the streets for most of his life and with me in
#Oxford
for only 32 days.
Here he is at the start and at the end of the 32 days. Died suddenly this morning. I hope he knew he was surrounded by love in his final days.
Devastated. C x
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New Family Member: Colin
Born 26 February 2019
lived on the streets of north
#Oxfordshire
, then with
@cherwellcats
, now has a loving home in
#Oxford
. He has only been home for 2 hours, but he is out from under my bed already and giving me head bumps. A very affectionate boy.
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Harry c2000 to 2022
Harry died at 1837 BST, in his 22nd year. we had 12 glorious years together as bonded Cat & his Human. He was with me through marriage, divorce, bereavement, court case & lockdown.
And Resurrection.
I will thank my God upon every remembrance of him
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Harry is ten years old today.
He has been with me through marriage / bereavement / divorce / that time I chased two fellas breaking into my house / High Court case and years of intimidation.
And Resurrection.
He saved my mental health.
#DeoGratias
x
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Announced in the Lord's house, this morning: I am to be the new Church Administration Manager. It is a job share, with my wonderful coworker. I am still driving my
#taxi
, though giving up plying for hire on a Saturday/Friday night, after 12 yrs.
My hope is in the name of the Lord
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Attacked whilst going about my lawful business as a Hackney Carriage driver, on the roads of
#Oxfordshire
today. A lot of blood. Sustained two injuries. Emergency dental visit Monday. Only 2nd attack in fifteen years in the taxiing game. With the authorities. Pretty upset. Cx
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Harry died in my arms at 1837 tonight
@CatsofOxford
One of the oldest
#Cats
of
#Oxford
, he was reckoned by the vet to be in his 22nd year. We had 12 glorious years together as bonded Cat and his human. Here he is a few months ago, jumping in my
#taxi
for a cuddle as I got home.
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>>>I know: I’d never be so vain as to name a cat after myself, he was already called Colin, when he was with the Cats Protection. I know people do change cat names, and that’s ok, but it’s not something that I do.
New Family Member: Colin
Born 26 February 2019
lived on the streets of north
#Oxfordshire
, then with
@cherwellcats
, now has a loving home in
#Oxford
. He has only been home for 2 hours, but he is out from under my bed already and giving me head bumps. A very affectionate boy.
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4
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If you do pray, and if I may, I ask for your prayers for my cat, Katie, who is at the emergency vet again this evening.
And for me. I’m pretty upset. And on duty in the Lord’s house in the morning, where there are two visiting ministers, a Baptism and so on. Cx
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Katie the Cat
Born Carterton 01 May 2010
Died Norwich 25 July 2023
“Golden girls and lads all must as chimney sweepers come to dust.” x
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Release from custody fare, from the Police station. Sat and listened for 30 minutes to my punter unburden himself. "F**** me, mate, you're the first person for years who 'asn' t judged me," he says.
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OMG,my food has arrived served on a hot chunk of wood and a crossword puzzle!
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meeting with
#TaxiOfficeCat
this afternoon: gave her tuna filling from my baguette, which she loves, minus salad, so ended up with a salad baguette for lunch ...
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The Church Ladies - of much more advanced years than me - are so sweet and also so sharp "we know you live on your own like us, you will ask us for help if you need it won't you? I mean it."
'By *this* shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another'
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I'm very grateful to all those who have supported me with love, kindness and prayer these last months. It's been extraordinarily stressful, the worst stress of my life. And I have seen some things. The Lord bless you and keep you. Always. C x
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It's really quiet at
#Gatwick
Airport tonight, at what will probably be my last airport run for some months, following the cancellation of all remaining airport jobs for March and April, in the last 3 days. Do say one for the precariously self employed. Thx. Peace be with you.
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I have my thin piece of laminated plastic in my own hand and I am back on the road!!!
God bless all those souls who helped me with this Cx
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oh, my.
#Witney
customer has insisted on paying five times the cost of the fare "to help see you through until September".
Such kindness.
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In other church news, I am now an authorised chalice bearer. I feel a bit trepidatious, really. My mother would have been pleased, God rest her soul.
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As if 2020 has not been shit enough.
He has been outstanding.
He saw me through bereavement / marriage / divorce / family legal dispute / that time I chased & caught 2 burglars breaking into my house / Coronatide.
And Resurrection. Keep the faith x
Harry The Cat Update
"Realistically, he is getting towards the end of his life."
Now considered to be at least 19 years old, "maybe as old as 20, 21"
No surgery tomorrow.
No diagnosis.
On B12 and steroids until the time comes.
#Oxford
1437 GMT
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I know, I am Anglican and evangelical, slightly charismatic at that, and I have crossed myself x
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very grateful to everyone who sent messages after recent death of Harry the Cat, age 21/22: I read them *all*. Harry was buried in my garden nightfall Friday 6 May: had a little ceremony for him during which I read from Ecclesiastes 3, Cymbeline and prayed The Lord's Prayer. Cx
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Friends: my case about the wrongfully withheld by taxicos inactive school run payments from March 2020 is finally in Court (online), this Friday at 1000 GMT. If you do pray, please offer one for me. For calm and for lucidity. Thx Cx
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walk in to tea room for meeting, feel someone watching me, to my right - this National Trust Tea Room has a cat!!! Happy days
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Licensed for four humans, but nine hedgehogs, probably my largest ever nunber of passengers. All fast asleep. Let's crack on, to their new home.
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Somebody has just paid for a stranger's food shopping, after their method of payment failed. Oddly, while stood in the queue, I had a feeling I was in the presence of holiness. Let's crack on.
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friends: is there anyone on here who can design and construct a website for me, in Squarespace. I'm looking for some quotations. please DM. Thx. C
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We've had a power cut in The Village for 6 hours, now. I have got my four candles out, purchased from Woolworths in the power cuts of the 70s for 10 pence and recited a bit of the 2 Ronnies sketch. I always told my dear old Dad the four candles would come in useful again one day
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Hey. It's the anniversary this week of my mother's passing to glory, still in her 40s (I was in my 20s), It's always difficult, but especially so in 2020 for some reason. If you might say one for me, I'd be grateful. Thx. C.
26 years. Rest in peace. Rise in Glory.
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one of my little old lady customers has again made me this pie, because she is again concerned that I am working too hard and not looking after myself properly. Which is very kind. God bless all the little old ladies.
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If you do pray, I would be grateful for prayer for anxiety over this ongoing situation. I am in a meeting this morning at 1000 GMT for 2 hours. It is SCM (Small Claims Mediation) regarding my case for inactive school run payments. £2681.04 has been owed to me, for 361 days. Thx C
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oh my, check this out
@sjpat3
I was just going to admire these beautiful 1875 drainpipes for
#ironworkThursday
when I had that feeling of being stared at
#Oxford
1913 BST
#SSH
#SJE
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Something significant is happening.
More news to follow, first thing Monday morning. If you do pray, pls offer one for me tonight, (1) for enough to survive and (2) for attempt to get church online this weekend. Come what may, we will proclaim The Resurrection come
#Easter
. Thx.
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This day started at 0400, it has been medieval in its intensity, like a journey to one of the medieval shrines of olden times - but also a thoroughly modern pilgrimage as The People came in their 1000s to pay homage to their Queen . The longest queue I have ever been in, for sure
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by tradition, the first photo on a new camera is always of my youngest, Katie. Now aged 11. Alpha female. Boss of the household, since arriving, as a kitten.
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look
@sjpat3
@The_Parishioner
there is a black cat in my house! He has walked right in while I had the front door open to receive my Waitrose delivery, like he owned the place. The first cat in my house since Katie passed. And he is black.
#Oxford
1900 GMT
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I'm so sorry: I just don't have the capacity to deal with any media enquiries today, about what has happened in the churchyard overnight. If you do pray, you could offer one for all those in the community affected by it.
Lord, have mercy. C x
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If you do pray, please offer one for me, today. It is a very specific discernment situation, with a looming deadline. Going ridiculously early to the Lord's house for a 1030 start, to pace around in silence for a while.
It's always discernment, these days.
Peace be with you. Cx
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Announced in church today: we will be in interregnum from Easter Day, making me the longest serving staff member after only 17 months service, Curate on leave and no FT clergy. Say one for us. Thx. Keep the faith. C
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Or as Adele once sang “Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead.” I’m very grateful for the many kindnesses shown during the last 36 hours. Especially The Church Gravedigger’s Son, who today taught me how to properly dig a hole. For the first time in my life. Cx
Colin the Cat was laid to rest this evening, during The Golden Hour. I read from Ecclesiastes 3 and Cymbeline
“Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”
And prayed The Lord’s Prayer at the end. Cx
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the first passenger of the night has fallen asleep, in my taxi.
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Meeting about funerals today. Someone told me today of the exit music at a past funeral in our church, which was not music at all, but birdsong, because the departed person loved birding. And I said "that's one of the most beautiful ideas, I've heard for a long time."
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I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the Zoom Room of the Lord
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BREAKING the first post Coronavirus airport booking is in, just now, for the first week of September,
#Abingdon
to and from
#Heathrow
Airport. I can't tell you what a relief this is. It is really quite emotional.
Still in the game. Deo Gratias.
#ShopLocal
#AbingdonTaxi
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This is my friend, Ahmed, from whom I have
purchased baked potatoes in the early hours of the morning, for more than thirty years. Now working with his son, he is the winner of the British Kebab Van of the Year 2019. Find him outside Univ on the High Street
#Oxford
nightly.
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this is so
#Oxford
: these fellas are trying to fly a kite in Radcliffe Square, someone has come over and is arguing physics with them.
2019 GMT
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the Lord: I wish he would sometimes move in more obvious ways. I again ask for your prayer, for a super important decision, to be taken within the next 24 hours. Could go either way. Have no idea.
Thx, C
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it
is my dearest wish to one day be semi retired and to be an actual Church Flower Gentleman, as well as to devote myself to other godly pursuits...
#Oxford
1646 BST
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a
#church
tradition: when someone is ill, or recently given birth, the church rota swings into action, we supply four meals per week and this week, it is my turn. It is an unctuous chilli, with spices in separate pot with butter, so they can make it as hot as they want. Or not.
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Friend who I’ve been visiting for the last 4 days in the hospice passed to glory at 1230 BST today, Of all the people I have met in my life, there have been 6 that were too good for this world. She was one of them. May she rest in peace and rise again in glory on The Last Day Cxx
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Small job for occasional, as opposed to regular, little old lady customer. She is concerned I am not eating properly and has again made me cottage pie, apple crumble and cake. Which is very kind.
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Estimated time at start: 17 hours
Total time: 10 hours 13 minutes
Break: 45 minutes at
#Southwark
Cathedral
One radio interview under
#WaterlooBridge
1413 BST
Steps: 21433
Distance: 11.32 miles
(inc walk to the start)
#QueueForTheQueen
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@TheReverendVet
thank you, Jenny. Only 32 days, but really outstandingly peaceful. And gentle. An angel in feline form, for sure.
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All done
@sjpat3
I was there for the changing of the guard at 1740, so got 5 minutes longer than usual. Everything was much smaller than it looks on the tv
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Having seen everything I've worked so hard for over last 18 months potentially disappear before my eyes in 3 days, am presently overwhelmed by offers of actual work and kindness, which have come in during this time. I will get back to you today. Love you all. Peace be with you x
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friends
@sjpat3
@The_Parishioner
I ask for your prayer for my beautiful boy cat, Harry. I have been up in the night with him again. Same stomach issues from 1.5 yrs ago when the vet said he was “19 or 20” and “getting towards the end of his life”. Thx C
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good Lord, I have had to turn work away, because I am fully booked. Still in the game.
#AbingdonTaxi
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Harry, now aged 19 or 20 (and not 10) and a senior cat, wishes all his friends a very, Happy
#Christmas
xx
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Back at the front of The Rank.
This next one'll be my last fare of the decade. Eleven New Year's Eves, in the prime of my life, taxiing in
#Abingdon
(save one spent flying home from Seattle), 100-200 souls every week.
Still plying for hire.
Still keeping the faith.
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my friends: the Dennis Severs house on Folgate Street in The City. It is a wonder to behold: like actually stepping back in time to 1714…their Silent Night Christmas opening - candlelit and you are not allowed to speak, a bit like being in church - is really outstanding
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For only the 2nd time in 11 Christmases taxiing, now off the road until after Boxing Day. May almighty God protect and bless all those souls plying for hire and travelling on the roads of the Kingdom this Christmas. Bring us safely home.
Happy
#Christmas
. Peace be with you x
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#TaxiOfficeCat
has been snoozing in the wire in tray, but perks up when I walk in with the 'Felix Goody bag' cat treats!
#catsatwork
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I’ve already today taken delivery of someone’s cremated remains and driven a man & his dog home. Leading Lunchtime Prayer in the Lord’s house at 1230, as we are in Vacancy, one priest is on mat leave, another on a study visit, etc..I don’t find this at all easy.
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This was cute. One of my customers today actually asked me what all these plastic things in my taxi were..
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Religious Sister (Nun) Twitter is really wholesome and life affirming.
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"Fuck me," he says, "noone's ever done nothin' like this for me, before."
"Good luck, mate," I respond, "God bless you"
Clear Churchill Hospital 0256 British Summer Time
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Today, I've put on my best gentleman's attire & am attending my late regular passenger's funeral. One more soul from the small band of The Faithful who attended Thursday lunchtime Mass in
#Abingdon
has joined the great congregation in Heaven.
Rest in peace and rise in glory.
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outside the arvo school run school today, I have reinflated a parent’s tyre and given him my portable air compressor pump, to get him and his children home. He offered money, but I declined. There was something in his demeanour and explanation which indicated he needed help.
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Katie came home from the animal hospital yesterday, but she is returning to The Vet today at 1245, when a decision will be taken. Cx
If you do pray, and if I may, I ask for your prayers for my cat, Katie, who is at the emergency vet again this evening.
And for me. I’m pretty upset. And on duty in the Lord’s house in the morning, where there are two visiting ministers, a Baptism and so on. Cx
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Someone has seen fit to hang two banners over the parapet of the bridge over the A420 at
#Cumnor
. The Western bound one reads
LOVE STFC
HATE OUFC
Red spray paint on white cloth, running in the rain. What a thing.
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after church, I went to the hipster pub, on the way home. A random, three legged dog, belonging to one of the two ladies on the next table decided to escape his lead and come over to me, squeezing himself in for a cuddle. He then went to sleep, on my feet. A beautiful spirit.
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my friends: there is a dog in the Lord’s house today and I have been given charge of his lead!! His name is Monty.
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yeah, it’s definitely snow
ok, let’s crack on. I might get some Christmas card photos, before the next fare …
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my 1st dinner jacket, bought in 88, just sold on eBay, to a person working on the London revival of a play set in the 1980s. Which pleases me no end, that my actual object from the 80s could appear on the London stage. A glorious intersection of art & the real world. Happy days.
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School Run for next week is now confirmed, taking the total number of jobs on the order book up from one last week, ( my regular passenger for years & years still hopeful of air travel in October for significant family event) to twelve now. Deo Gratias.
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I have broken my Dad's old fork (God rest his soul) after all these years, while
#gardening
in the dark (it helps with the stress of my cat being ill).
And now for the first time ever, I have a legitimate reason to go to Silvesters and ask for fork 'andles.
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inexplicably start crying in pen to get out of SACAT at Sainsbury’s, with the
#MotheringSunday
flowers for the Lord’s house tomorrow. She has been gone for thirty years. I have had more years without her, than with her. It’s irredeemably and perpetually melancholic. C x
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Gate A20, I'm so excited, I haven't left the Kingdom for four years, since the last
#pilgrimage
to The Holy Land. The usual scrum at the Gate. "he who is first will be last ' I tell myself and wait, patiently
#RoadtoRome
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@sjpat3
on my lap earlier, who knew this boy was a lap cat? here, he is giving me the cat stare, trying to tell me I’m a bit late with his Sunday dinner
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a
#GoodFriday
tradition going back a long time. I have bought fish and chips from Kaz in
#Oxford
for 35 years. Keep the faith.
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This is so sweet, an old lady has booked a taxi to the airport for November - a lot of older people like to book well in advance, for their holiday. It's currently the only job in my order book. She said "I might not still be around then, love, but I know you need the work"
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Friends: now Police have finally taken action following the attack, I’m aware of a number of defamatory social media posts circulating. If you do come across them at all, I’d ask that you don’t respond, but leave the Police and SocMed to deal via law enforcement tools. Thx C x
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last day of school before half term (a week’s holiday). a child on arvo school run has made me a card. only 2nd time this has happened, in all these years driving.
Moved.
Let’s crack on.
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my first customer off The Rank, for nearly three months! Hurrah! And she is going to the same street where the next prebooked customer lives!
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